It’s best to go grocery shopping after you’ve taken an accurate assessment of what’s in the fridge, and in the pantry.

The Dolphins will build it's passing game around Brandon Marshall.

The same approach can be taken to the start of free agency, and that’s why we need to examine, and breakdown the Miami Dolphins’ post draft roster, seeing where the newcomers fit, and identifying what holes still need to be filled.

OFFENSE

Henne’s 13-14 in his two seasons as an NFL starter, but the Dolphins plan to add someone (via free agency or a trade) who can challenge, if not unseat him for the starting spot. Thigpen might return if he’s a restricted free agent, but he’d prefer to go some place where he’ll be allowed a FAIR opportunity to compete for the starting spot. He’s not on even footing with Henne, and likely won’t be given a chance to get there. Brandstater must prove he’s more than practice squad filler. The Dolphins will likely keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, and one of the practice squad.

Big Backs (2) – Daniel Thomas (R), Lex Hilliard

Scatbacks (1) - Kory Sheets

FB (2) – Lousaka Polite, Charles Clay (R)

Thomas, who was drafted in the second round, and Hilliard, a four-year veteran whom the Dolphins selected in the seventh round in 2008, are both physical tailbacks who can produce hard hitting runs between the tackles. Sheets, who was the fastest man on the roster last season, is a quick, get to the edge runner. The Dolphins plan to add another scatback through free agency. Polite regressed last season, but should rebound with better offensive line play. Clay, whom the Dolphins selected in the fifth round, is the mismatch producing H-back this offense has missed since David Martin departure.

Marshall, who has contributed 86 receptions for 1014 yards and three touchdowns, is the alpha receiver who this offense is built around. Last year Marshall and Bess, who had a breakout year, set a franchise record for productivity from the position. Hartline, who caught 43 passes for 615 yards and one touchdown, is a versatile flanker. However, newcomer Edmond Gates will likely come into the game for a handful of snaps (20 or so) per game to stretch the field. The Dolphins typically keep five receivers on the 53-man roster. Moore, Wallace, Pruitt, Foster and Carter are competing for that final spot.

TE (4) – Anthony Fasano, Jeron Mastrud, Mickey Shuler, Dedrick Epps

Fasano had a career year (39 catches for 528 yards and four touchdowns) before injuries slowed, and eventually sidelined him in the final month of the season. If healthy Fasano should pick up where he left off, serving as an every snap tight end who blocks and catches 30-plus passes a season. Mastrud, Shuler and Epps all played last season, and struggled to fill a huge void. The trio contributed eight catches last season. Clay will likely serve as the H-back who moves around and becomes a second tight end on game day. But Mastrud, Shuler and Epps will be competing for the true second tight end spot role, and spots on the practice squad. The Dolphins normally keep three tight ends, but Clay’s emergence might challenge that.

Offensive Line (12)

LT – Jake Long, Nate Garner (tendered but unsigned), James Marten

LG – Richie Incognito, Ray Feinga

C - Mike Pouncey (R), Joe Berger

RG – John Jerry, Matt Kopa

RT – Vernon Carey, Lydon Murtha, Allen Barbre

Outside of the bookmark tackles – Long and Carey – everything about the offensive line is unsettled. The Dolphins envision Pouncey, who was the team’s first-round pick, as the starting center. His ability to effectively pull to the left or right should add a new dimension to the running schemes. According to Ireland, Pouncey’s biggest competition for the starting center spot is Incognito, who spent all of last season as the team’s starting left guard. I suspect Incognito will remain a starter somehow, but it could be at center, left guard or right guard, where Jerry struggled as a rookie. Incognito’s biggest competition is Nate Garner, who started eight games in 2009, but missed all of last season because of a broken foot. Garner’s plugged in as the primary backup tackle for now, but he’s possibly one of the team’s top five offensive linemen when healthy, so he might be plugged in as a starter. The Dolphins typically keep eight or nine offensive linemen on the 53-man roster, and stash two on the practice squad. This unit could use an upgrade from a depth standpoint.

So, what are your impressions of the Dolphins’ present roster? What hopes do you think need to be filled in free agency?

i agree with everything except the stud part. marshall is ok at best and any receiver who needs #1 help to have success (‘aint no stud) IMO. that being said our wr group is IMO very talented and much more capable of what 5 or 6 td’s a season? with daboll coming in to prove himself as the right guy, we should at the very least have the element of surprise (wildcat) a few seasons ago.but unlike the ‘cat we can’t afford to fizzle out after just one season of surprises. we need an actual plan set in place with conviction and built around the talent we have. i personally think this is gonna be a very good year (double digit wins for sure), i’m really excited to see our D grow this year more than the O! i know that sounds weird but i truly believe that the D will be much more responsible for some of those wins….as are the great teams. last year proved that, we lost several games….not blamin’ the D just sayin’ if we make a few more (seal the deal plays)in the 4th qtr. this team has a shot to be really special(HEALTH INCLUDED) IMO.

Marshall ok at best? Ummm he had a off yr with 86 catches, if that’s ok then I can’t wait to see him when he is decent. If you don’t like him that’s fine, but don’t deny his skills. The weak link was the line and the speed of Ricky and Ronnie. They got caught from behind so many times. Hopefully the goal line and red zone play calling will improve

It is comments like this from blogs and wanna-be media types that make me laugh. The Bleacher Report stated this about Kearse “He probably won’t ever become a starter, but seventh-round picks barely do.”

That is an interesting statement since Parcells took Jason Ferguson at NT in the 7th and he not only became a starter – he was a very solid starter.

Then Parcells went to Dallas where he and Ireland took Jay Ratliff at NT in the 7th round and he is now a solid starter.

Why do people insist on saying just anything just for the sake of saying something? I bet the bifecta took him because they expect him to develop into a starter. But I digress – does the BR do any research – ever???

Because there are such things called outliers. If you take a normal distribution of items, and place them on a bell curve, depending on the resource you use, 92 or 95% of items will fit within one or two standard deviations of the mean (or expected value).

Pulling up a few examples of outliers as your basis for argument not only invalidates your argument, it makes the point for your counterpart.

Does anyone know who runs Bleacher Report? Worst sports writing ever. Saying 7th rounders never develop not only ignores Ferguson and Ratliff, but undrafted players like former DPOY James Harrison, slotty supreme Davone Bess, likely future HOFer Kurt Warner, etc., etc. I say never write off anyone who’s worked hard enough to get the opportunity to work out for a professional football team, let alone get drafted.

If we really want to keep the wildcat, we should get Brad Smith. heck, we should get Brad Smith anyway, good returner/receiver/QB/wildcat player. Very valuable commodity, PLUS- it gut punches the Jest, always nice!

MAN could you see 3 or 4 differant players at the wild cat set, SMITH RUNS ONE PLAY, THOMAS ANOTHER, RICKY OR RONNIE ANOTHER + A LITTLE MIXING IT UP WITH HENNE, that could be a nightmare for defenses if they dont know whats going on. Could be fun to watch the cat again.

This is an anti-trust lawsuit and the union has been decertified. So there is no group to negotiate with. As a result, the courts do have jurisdiction to force both parties to go back and work under the latest working terms while the lawsuit goes through the court system.

They do this because the legal system can take a long time and it would crush employees if they had to wait to work until it was completed. Think back to the last lawsuit from the NFLPA against the NFL – it was filed in 1987 and I believe it was finalized in 1993.

If the injunction is lifted it is the court telling the owners and players that the 2010 rules are in effect and to begin working immediately…

Jack, I’ve read some reports on Kearse that seem to believe he’s got a decent chance to develop into a NT. He’s exactly the kind of prospect we needed to pick up to develop at NT. A late round pick who won’t make a lot of money and he has the size requirements and mentality.

I know some people are focusing on Daniel Thomas’ fumbles and 40 time. I think that everyone should look deeper – that is how you “mine” talent.

Thomas had 19 TD’s last year playing for K-State and 11 in his Junior year. These were his first and 2nd years playing RB.

He played against some tough defenses.

He played in 12 games as a junior and scored TD’s in 6 of them – including 4 TD’s against Texas A&M. He had 5 games with at least 100 yards rushing and the least touches he had in a game was 15 (for 99 yards against Texas Tech).

In his Senior year he played in 13 games and scored TD’s in 10 of them. In 8 of the games he scored at least 2 TD’s (including 3 against Syracuse in the bowl game). He rushed for over 100 yards in 7 games and over 200 yards in 2 games. His least touches were 15 against Colorado and his most were 37.

In two years he

rushed for 30 TD’s
had 545 carries
rushed for 2,850 yards

he caught 52 passes for 428 yards

He completed 7 of 12 passes for 155 yards
He threw 2 TD’s and 1 Int

He returned 1 kick for 25 yards.

That is 610 touches in 25 games
3,010 yards
32 TD’s

And he is just learning the position still – and some think he is slow. I would love to see his numbers then if he were “fast”

You keep trying to plug in Incognito at LG or C. He is a RG and that is all. He can’t get out of his own way. Garner should be the LG because he can at least pull. This is why you had such a man crush on Smiley, remember. Jerry will have to ride the bench.

03/15/2011 – Alabama A&M Pro day: It was difficult for Alabama A&M prospects at the school’s pro day held on March 7, but a couple still managed to thrive. The five players who worked out had to do so on a wet grass field outdoors ??? not ideal for trying to impress the 15 teams present at the pro day. There were two standouts, neither of which was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine: DT Frank Kearse (6-foot-4, 315 pounds) ??? He ran 5.30 and 5.44 seconds in the 40-yard dash, had a 30-inch vertical jump, an 8-foot-7 broad jump, and did 22 bench-press repetitions at 225 pounds. He also posted 4.66 and 7.80 in the short shuttle and 3-cone drill, respectively. Scouts were impressed with him, and the Steelers’ Mark Gorscak worked out Kearse individually. – Gil Brandt, NFL.com

I would not think of Clay as a FB. He’s more of an H-back and not a true blocking FB. I don’t think he has anything to do with Polite’s job security. Deon Anderson who was on I/R is a possible threat to Polite.

Because there are such things called outliers. If you take a normal distribution of items, and place them on a bell curve, depending on the resource you use, 92 or 95% of items will fit within one or two standard deviations of the mean (or expected value).

Pulling up a few examples of outliers as your basis for argument not only invalidates your argument, it makes the point for your counterpart.

7th round picks do, in fact, rarely turn into starters.
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When a group of people have hit on 2 7th-round players at the same position in the past 15 years – you would think that someone would take notice and figure that when they take the next guy in the same round, at the same position and the same size and body style that they are intending on him playing. This becomes their system and lumping that guy in with all of the other 7th round picks on all the other teams in history is lazy, fool-hearty and unprofessional (as a writer).

The problem is someone buys a website – puts up some graphics and then just starts talking. I prefer that the sources I read try to be somewhat educated about a topic rather than just trying to be the “first” to type something.

Of course – that is why I like Omar because he doesn’t mind educating himself and his readers. He generally doesn’t comment too much until he has done his own research and it tends to be extensive. He also encourages people not to make rash judgments without first knowing the facts.

When it comes to this regime, that position and that round — everyone else happens to be the outliers. They have proven they know what they are doing in there and it seems they have a plan – just sayin!!!

You have to keep a FB on the roster. Lousaka has a talent – he is the short yardage hammer. You don’t want to give that up – especially since he is called on 10-12 times a season to convert crucial downs…

Regarding Hartline – There is no way he is traded at this point. Marshall is always one moment away from getting himself into trouble. I would imagine we have a contingency plan for playing without Marshall. – and it doesn’t involve trading Hartline. Hartline is dependable – and a good player. Marshall is more likely to be traded than Hartline (though I don’t believe we’re likely to trade him either).

Pig, I think the Wildcat could still be an option and it could be more stealth this year with Thomas and Clay both having run it. If they’re on the field we just morph into like we did when it started and was more effective.

I do believe the coaches want to get back to a strong conventional running game though.

Tosh – Henne met with Daboll 2 months ago to go over the offense. I’m sure Henne got a lot of the playbook at that point. That’s why we got fined. Henne & Jake Long have been leading organized team practices/workouts for a month now (as Omar said). Sparano said they didn’t hand out playbooks on Friday… because he didn’t need to!!

FA Jack – I think Polite is in real danger of getting cut. I think Hilliard can perform some FB duties and Hilliard’s a better ST player. I know Polite is 90%+ on 4th & 1 or 3rd & 1, but I am willing to bet that Hilliard or Clay or Thomas can come close to that success.

To the guy who said “Brandon Marshall ain’t no stud” you do know that Marshall is tied for 4th in NFL history for most catches through their first 5 seasons right?

He has 413 catches in his first 5 seasons (tied with Anquan Boldin and MArvin Harrison). The three above him are Randy Moss (414), Torry Holt (423) and Larry Fitzgerald (426). And he did that in less starts than anyone in the top 11 (he had 59 starts – everyone else was in the 60’s, 70’s or even 80 starts).

Now, let’s not forget that Marshall was the only one in the top 11 that were drafted lower than the second round – he went in the 4th.

Let’s also not forget that Marshall has done that with 3 QB’s and 3 Head Coaches.

Not a stud? What are you smoking? And that isn’t just among active players – that is in all of NFL history!!!

I wasn’t so much commenting on Lousaka as I was on the FB position. Someone said we could get rid of the position and use that spot elsewhere. I was merely saying FB has an important role and was using the niche that Lousaka has filled as support.

I do agree though – it is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league and Lousaka is getting older and has been injured. he needs to prove he can be the man or he could be the odd man out – but we keep the position…

Tosh – My point on the playbook is that the team already gave it to Henne 2 months ago. It’s not like he’s hoarding it to himself. Henne’s not drawing up plays in the dirt for the past month, he’s running plays from Daboll’s offense. You don’t think that Henne has made the playbook available for the rest of the offense? And everyone on defense (except our 7th rd picks) already knows their duties.

The Miami Dolphins and Joey Haynos are expected to go their separate ways.

Joey Haynos expects to become an unrestricted free agent.

According to a league source, the Dolphins are not planning to place a tender on Haynos, a restricted free agent who missed all of last season because of a broken right foot he suffered in the third exhibition game of 2010.

I was trying to post this before, but I was having technical difficulties. Lawrence Vickers may be pretty similar to Charles Clay actually. Vickers was never really a sledgehammer blocking FB, more of a fast receiver out of the backfield, and decent runner, because he’s much faster than most FB’s.

WNP – Here’s a tough question for you: Would you rather pay Sproles 12-16 million over 4 years or sign Noel Devine (or your pick of UDFA RB) for something like 2 years & $1mil? And Reggie Bush would cost just as much as Sproles, if not more. And Deangelo will cost more than Sproles too.

Great question & it’s very easy for me to say since it’s not my money. I love Sproles & he’s gotten better every year. Sproles is a proven NFL commodity & an extremely versatile player. With his ability as a receiver I believe he would be the perfect compliment to Thomas. Although he would cost some serious cash, look at how much money the Dolphins have paid to Ronnie & Ricky over the last few years??? Way too much IMO. Thomas was a late 2nd so he’s not going to break the bank.

Tim, I swear I saw that he was released. I was pumping the guy up pre draft. Jefferson had a FB in his mock a while back and I gave him sh^t about it and told him we had Anderson and then like that day or the next he was waived. I’m searching now and nothing indicates that to be true so he must still be with the team. Sorry about that.

I would prefer in order DeAngelo Williams, Reggie Bush, Darrin Sproles.

No offense but Noel Devine is not in their league and not being drafted didn’t help his cause to be the guy we rely on to be our change of pace guy. He would be nice as a backup to one of them though. However, the RB we need is a home run hitter – not a back up. Too much inexperience at the position now as it is. I would like a good veteran that can take it deep…

Tosh – As FA Jack just posted… Omar has made a few different tweets on these workouts. He said that they’ve been going on for about a month, that 20-25 guys are participating and that Henne/Long are leading them. I’d guess they’re mostly or all players on offense and that they’re learning formations, plays, the language for the play calls, etc.

Obviously Pouncey would have to prove that he can start at Center to make that move so I wouldn’t count on it. I actually don’t know how I would play this out if I’m Ireland. Do we get insurance @ LG or do we get insurance @ C????

We definitely need to add another guard to compete for a starting job. As of right now, we are going with who we had last year, which was a big weakness on the team.

The only place I hear DeAngelo Williams referred to as a scatback is on this blog, so maybe I am misunderstanding the definition of what it is. I think we need another back, as we can’t go into the season with 23 career runs from our backs.
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I think he is just referring to more of a speed, get-around-the-edge, and 3rd down/pass-catching RB. DW fits that role, and would add more options in lining up and creating mismatches due to his speed. D Thomas definitely will not be our speed/scat guy.

I actually agree with Convict. DeAngelo when healthy is a more of a feature back than a scat back. If DeAngelo still has the speed he once had then obviously he COULD be that but he’s going to be looking for starting or feature RB money.

My RB preference: Sign Sproles and sign Vai Taua. Deangelo, I’m guessing, will be a RFA. Sproles will be 28 this year and he has proven to be a change-of-pace back and a weapon to catch the ball. Sproles can’t be a workhorse, but Daniel Thomas is. Vai Taua played in Nevada with Kaep. He’s a good candidate to compete with Hilliard for ST and backup RB/FB duties.

It is comments like this from blogs and wanna-be media types that make me laugh. The Bleacher Report stated this about Kearse “He probably won’t ever become a starter, but seventh-round picks barely do.”
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FAJ- Although I do agree with his statement, b/c 7th round picks do in fact rarely become starters, you have to take Bleacher Report with a grain of salt. “Bleacher”, as in from the stands? As in, written by “expert” fans? Go sign up for an account and you too can be an esteemed “expert” to publish on their site!

Actually he’s going to be a NT & if my memory serves me correct Parcells took Ratliff & Ferguson in the 7th so it’s a little early to say isn’t it??? If the guy could be a viable backup to Soliai & eventually play some snaps then it’s a good pick.

OMAR KELLY was unsuccessful at achieving his childhood dream to become a super hero, so he figured he'd do the next best thing and become a journalist who fights against injustice, and searches for truth. After being bored to death reporting news and covering politics, he switched to sports.
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IZZY GOULD joined the Sun Sentinel in Feb. 2012 as a Senior Sports Reporter on the Miami Dolphins beat. He came to South Florida fresh off covering the University of Alabama football program, including its 2011 national championship team. More